Trustees discuss facilities
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POLSON — Fresh from the special board meeting on facilities held earlier in the day, Polson School Board Chair John Triolo summarized the “productive meeting” at the Feb. 9 school board meeting.
At this time the district is not ready to make a commitment regarding moving grades from Cherry Valley Elementary School to Linderman Elementary School, according to Triolo.
“This is what I believe we’ve come up with,” Triolo said.
A district priority continues to be long-term facilities funding. Trustees will meet Feb. 26 to decide whether or not to run a facilities maintenance levy. It would generate approximately $100,000 a year to maintain facilities.
A separate facilities issue is the two permanent classrooms needed at Linderman. In an email, Superintendent Linda Reksten said the rooms are needed due to increased enrollment coming from Cherry Valley. Triolo said the board would not go to the taxpayers for help building these structures.
Trustees discussed attendance. All four Polson schools have second quarter attendance of more than 90 percent, although each school has students with critical attendance issues.
With 125 critical attendance students at Linderman school, Principal Tim Finkbeiner said many of his students are counted absent if they don’t show up on time.
“A lot of that number comes from the tardy piece,” he said.
Finkbeiner has been standing out in front of the school talking to parents about the issue every morning; he discussed the situation with the home school coordinator; he and Nate Lundeen, Polson School Resource Officer, have made home visits and Finkbeiner has turned in approximately five parents for not getting their kids to school.
WHAT is attendance law?
The attendance law in Montana doesn’t have enough teeth, Superintendent Reksten said.
In other business, trustees discussed staffing Polson High School with an assistant principal and a teacher serving as activities director. Scott Wilson has held both the jobs for the last couple of years.
When asked if the activities director would be teaching any classes, Superintendent Reksten said the position would just be advertised as an activities director.
Triolo said a school of 480 students and three administrators, with none of them in the classroom, “seems to be a little top heavy,
with no reflection on the work Scott or Rex (Weltz, PHS principal) have done.”
The recommendation passed with Triolo voting against it.
Wilson attended the Montana High School Association meeting Jan. 18 and 19 in Kalispell. The Association supervises, controls and regulates high school athletic activities. Items on the agenda included amending the eligibility by-law in consideration of gender equity; amending the awards rule; deleting prohibition of Sunday activities; and amending golf coaching regulations.
“(The gender equity amendment) was a very, very, very hot topic,” Wilson said, adding that the intention of the amendment was for the MHSA to be proactive in case of a legal issue regarding the same opportunities in locker rooms, bathrooms, etc. The motion was withdrawn, Wilson said.
The body voted to raise the $50 amateur award rule limit to $100. For instance, if a student receives a fleece for winning a cross-country meet, the value of the jacket can now be up to $100, enabling awards to include brands such as Patagonia, North Face or Columbia.
Student athletes can’t ever receive cash.
The proposals to delete prohibition of Sunday activities and to amend golf coaching regulations did not pass.
The next regularly scheduled school board meeting will be March 9 at 5:30 p.m. in the district conference room.
